Witness Post: Kaladi Brothers

Witness Post: Kaladi Brothers

Every time our daughters return to Oregon from their home in Denver, they remember to pick up a bag of Kaladi Brothers coffee beans. There is nothing like it in Portland, so it is a welcome morning jolt of java that means a lot to me. It tastes great and our girls are thinking of me – a great combination.

Kaladi Brothers: Oh, And About the Goat

Looking at the animal in their red circular logo above, what is it? Is it a reindeer? Is it a pony? No! It’s a goat. That’s right, a goat. A bright red goat has come to symbolize Alaska’s finest coffee.

The Kaladi Coffee Goat

The Urban Legend of Denver has it … that coffee was first discovered by a goat herder named Kaladi living in the land of Arabia Felix. One day Kaladi found his normally tranquil goats very frisky and dancing with abandoned glee near a shiny, dark-leafed shrub with berries. Kaladi soon determined that it was the red berries that caused such jubilation and decided to sample some for himself. He, too, found the berries very stimulating – and it wasn’t long before he was merrily dancing and cavorting with his goats.

One day a passing monk from a nearby monastery was astonished to find a herdsman and flock dancing in this elated state and asked Kaladi for an explanation of their strange behavior. The monk spread the word to the Abbot at the monastery and the Abbot, after sampling some of the fruit himself, immediately felt refreshed. He suddenly realized that the berries had the exact properties required to keep his monks awake while at prayer. The Abbot then combined the berries with water and produced a wonderfully stimulating drink which he thought to be heaven sent. Soon the news of coffee spread throughout Arabia Felix and from there to the world.

1984

Kaladi Brothers Coffee can trace its roots back to January of 1984. It was at that time that Brad Bigelow and a friend had the day off of work and found themselves walking around downtown Seattle, stopping at various coffee carts that were littering the Seattle streetscape. Back then coffee was still new and even Starbucks only had five retail locations. By the time they came upon Chuck Beeks, the owner of Monorail Espresso, the original coffee street coffee cart in Seattle, they were very juiced up on caffeine. They were amazed at the amount of people stopping by for coffee and within minutes they had devised a plan to build a coffee cart. A friend of Brad’s had previously lived in Alaska suggested that they try the cart out in Anchorage, where at the time the only street vendor was a hot dog cart on Fourth Avenue.

1984 Continued

On April 14th, 1984 Brad rolled out the cart that he and his father built for the very first time in downtown Anchorage, on the corner of Fourth Avenue and F Street in front of the Visitor Information Center. He became the first espresso cart in Alaska. They had of course hoped to entice weary tourists who were stopping by for travel information, but were fortunate enough to get word out to the locals and soon they had a loyal following. Pictures and stories of their cart made it to the front page of the Anchorage Daily News, and even a mention in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. As fall approached it was decided that standing outside on the streets in the middle of winter was not ideal, so they decided to take the winter off, travel the country and return next spring.

1985

That first summer, the coffee they used on their cart was purchased from a man who used a small 7-pound roaster to produce coffee on the weeks when he wasn’t working on the North Slope. When Brad returned to Alaska in April of 1985, this gentleman offered to sell the roaster and his supply of green coffee beans to him and his friend. This is truly where the origins of our coffee started. Soon they were not only brewing up coffee for the locals in downtown Anchorage, but also selling bags of their own roasted beans!

Present Day

More recently, and with a family of around 300 employees, we stay focused on the maturing process of a company born in Alaska, while still holding true to our cause each day. For us, being a catalyst for community includes contributing time and resources to the community where we participate. It also includes providing a meeting place for members of the community to come together, share ideas, and build relationships. Through the donation of our resources and, more importantly, through the contribution of our time, we currently participate and support hundreds of community events every year.